Taking better photos with your phone

80 percent of the photos I take and share online these days are snapped with my smartphone. It's too convenient. All I have to do is reach into my pocket or bag and I am ready to go.

I once wrote a post about the best camera being 'the one on you'. I still stand by that.

I used to carry my bigger SLR around with me almost everywhere, but now, for the purposes of my general day to day snaps, my phone does the trick.

Even though you don't have a full technical array of camera options - aperture, shutter and ISO - you still have some control.

Every time I snap a photo with my phone, these are the things running through my head:

LIGHT METERING AND EXPOSURE

To adjust your exposure touch your smartphone screen.

In more technical terms this is called light metering or exposure compensation, but you can still control it on your phone.

If you press on the brightest part of your screen, the rest of the photo will underexpose (go darker). Alternatively, if you press on the darkest part of the screen the photo will overexpose (go lighter).

You can see this demonstrated in the images below.

When I touch the brightest part of the screen (where the sun is) the rest of the image underexposes. When I touch the spot where there is medium brightness (the middle section) the image lightens up. And when I touch the darkest part of the screen (where the sand is) the rest of the image becomes overexposed.

This is especially useful when you're shooting into or around the sun or in low light (sunrise/sunset). Focus on the sun and you'll find the whole image gets darker.

FOCUS POINT

When you’re working in more 'balanced' light conditions, and not using the screen to get the right exposure, you can use the yellow or white square to focus.

If you're taking a picture of something close up you can choose where the focus point is by touching the screen - just like you do when adjusting exposure. This is what I did in the picture of the sea urchin shell.

RULE OF THIRDS

Another useful tool on smartphone cameras is the GRID which breaks your screen down into the 'rule of thirds'.

The rule of thirds is a technique that can be used by anyone creating something visual - photographs, films, artwork - to compose a scene. It’s a way to help you decide where to place the points of interest in your photo.

As demonstrated by the grid lines on your phone imagine your scene is split into two horizontal and two vertical lines - like a noughts and crosses board.

In an image that adheres to the rule of thirds the ‘point of interest’ - your main subject - should fall in the interception of one of these lines.

In the photos below you can see another example of where the point of
interest - in this case the boat - IS NOT in the intersection of two
grid lines, and then IS in the intersection. The second image would be
considered a more balanced rule of thirds composition.

In both examples you can also see the river is falling along the bottom horizontal line. In this way, I also use the grid to get my horizons straight.

To get more of an idea of rule of thirds, I recommend you watch this video.

VIEWPOINT AND (PHONE) CAMERA ANGLE

One of the best things you can do to get interesting and impacting photos on your phone is to look for different angles and move yourself and your phone around. I can't stress this enough!

Dare yourself to deviate from a two-feet-on-the-ground-phone-in-front-of-face-shot. Lie down, sit, get up high, go in close. Look for something to frame your shot through. Make it different.

Below you'll see a regular landscape shot of a beach and the sea beyond. By taking it through the palm tree I'm adding a bit of extra interest - I'm framing the scene with something in the foreground.

The low angle crab sand ball shot (of Mission Beach) accentuates these amazing small creations and gives us a new perspective. If I had taken the same photo standing up I would have lost the sense of shape, patterns and just how many there are!

TO FILTER OR NOT FILTER

The best thing about taking photos on your smartphone is that they're easy to share.

I use Instagram (@gemmadeavin) to share some of the photos I take on my smartphone, and sometimes add filters. Filters are effects you add to your photos that change the look and feel of the image.

Everyone will have a different opinion about what filters work, and what don’t. I try and use filters that don’t dramatically change the look of my photo.

Something I use more often than filters now is the new option Instagram has of applying a a custom editing palette including straightening, brightness, contrast, warmth, saturation, highlights, shadows and vignette adjustments.

Here are two photos pre-filter, and with-filter using Instagram. As you can see Instagram also changes the usual photo shape to a square, medium format style image.

CAMERA APPS TO TRY

If you are keen to use your phone camera more to capture the world around you, and share those images, here are some phone camera apps to try.

Each of these will work differently, but they all allow you to edit and work on your photos.

One of the pros of phone photography is being able to share photos instantaneously, through social media.

Ten phone camera apps - some free, some not - for iOS and Android you can try:

Instagram - free

PicLab HD

Handy Photo

FxCamera - free

Clone Camera

Photoshop Touch

Camera360 - free

Photo Wonder - free

LINE Camera - free

Photoshop Express - free

I'm a fan of phone photography. I think the best thing about using your phone to take photos is it gives everyone access to being a 'photographer'.

Most importantly, when you’re taking photos with a phone you can focus on composition, point of view and creativity instead of your technical settings.

And you can still take beautiful images. I took all the photos below on my phone.

I challenge you to try out some of these techniques and see if it makes a difference to your photos.

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Comments

Jane anderson

Very helpful.

CHARLES KACPERUK

I FIND THIS NEW TO LEARN!

Jono

Great tips Gemma. The great thing about Instagram now is that the updated version allows you to keep the shape of your original photo... even portrait and panoramic... or you can still go square. Makes it a great editing tool for some minor adjustments. I hardly ever use the preset "filters" any more, just subtly doctor the image to bring out truer colours or whatever. Great piece Gemma!

Chrissi Hobba

Another great (free) editing tool is Snapseed

Barry Saltmarsh

Great info that explains the correct use of our smart phone...thank you!

Fiona Lake

Great tips Gemma! Worth emphasising though; tapping the screen to change the image exposure, only works on later model iphones. Androids have different settings - eg on the Samsung Note, you have to go into settings to adjust the exposure (tedious), and it will only go up or down 2 stops. However it will stay at the same setting for a number of shots; until you leave the camera app & re-enter it.

Brad Marsellos

Great info!!

Jan sweet

Fabulous thank u so much for sharing

belinda hansen

that's a great lot of tips :) I love that you have included examples! iphones are a wonderful tool to capture images , especially as there are now so many new features to their native camera! Also check out camera + - it gives a LOT of control over focus/lighting etc . It also has an editor with many ways to correct/perfect your image :) ..and don't forget the actual lenses which can be purchased to fit ON the iPhone and enable amazing macro shots , amongst others.

Luke Wong

Great visual tips here Gemma. Now I can conquer the smartphone camera craze.